cnn's silicon valley correspondent dan simon is looking into it for us. >> reporter: steve merryfield owns a high-end sporting goods shop. after 27 years in business, he'd been preparing to sell it. all the records for potential buyers stored on his computer server. so he was more than concerned when he realized all his data had been frozen. >> the last words i remember is, this is not good. this is not good. >> reporter: it turned out hackers had taken control of his machine and flashed a message. for $3,000 he could have his data back. but it didn't stop there. he'd have to fork over an additional $1,000 for each week he didn't comply. he'd become a victim of what's being called ransomware. had you ever heard the term rans ransomware before? >> no. i can say that it's, you know, appropriately named. you feel victimized. you feel helpless. >> reporter: ransomware is becoming so pervasive that it prompted the fbi to put out a warning. the bureau says it's getting dozens of complaints each day. >> it's one of the more destructive pieces of malware. they'll encrypt the files and if you